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48

I thought about adding an answer, but I noticed you already accepted one. It's too bad - I had a truly marvelous answer to this question which this margin is too narrow to contain.
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Kyle CroninFeb 4 '09 at 23:01

I find it interesting that people still vote on answers that have been accepted--not that I mind (I've gained a fair amount of rep that way).
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BoltBaitFeb 4 '09 at 23:03

You can add another answer, if it's better, I can accept it :)
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juanformosoFeb 6 '09 at 0:05

1

yeah, actually I had originally asked it on SO, and asked it here again before migration existed... a little problem with time being linear sadly
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juanformosoAug 29 '09 at 20:57

Even though there's a legitimate reason for both copies to exist, one of them ought to be closed. +1 for linear time though (but isn't it cubic?)
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Andrew GrimmFeb 19 '10 at 12:16

15 Answers
15

Accepting an answer discourages further answers. A few answers may trickle in after, but many (most?) members care a lot about reputation, so they won't answer anything that's old or that has an accepted answer.

That's why I usually don't accept an answer unless it nails the question. In other words, if, after a day or two, I still have only a collection of partially correct answers, I don't just accept the one that is "least wrong."

I do believe that it discourages more answers. That's why I typically wait for a while before awarding a check mark on a question, unless the answer was spot on exactly what I needed (such as in "how do I..." questions). After giving it a day or two, then I will tend to revisit questions and award check marks to the best answers.

Stack exchange will notify you if there is any activity on questions you've asked in the past. I always go and look at them if someone does this, it might be a better answer, or it might be more insight into the answer.
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leeand00Oct 27 '09 at 12:35

I usually read questions I might know the answer to. If I like the "accepted" answer and think it covers it, I'll just uptick the answer. Otherwise I'll leave my own - if not for the original asker then for someone who might find it via google down the road.

That's the proposed good behavior! Analyze questions and answers without considering the rep system - as they don't have any vote counts. Only unicorns can always act like this, tho.
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CawasMar 31 '10 at 18:28

From the questioner's point of view accepting an answer means "thanks to this answer I've solved my problem". So if that's the case then you as questioner should accept the relevant answer. You don't owe any future potential answerer's anything.

From the answerer's point of view it shows which questions we shouldn't waste our time answering as no one is going to be particularly interested in the answer. We can go off and search for questions no answers or no accepted answers and try there.

So yes accepting an answer will discourage more answers, but that (in my opinion) is a good thing. There's nothing stopping you adding a new answer if you think that there's something missing from the answers already there.

While I agree that it in general discourages new answers, it definitely does still happen - and often in batches. For example, this question yesterday (which is over 6 months old and has an accepted answer), suddenly gained 3 new answers. Obviously somebody stumbled into it, thought it was interesting and added an answer. It jumped to the front page and 2 other people thought it was interesting and added an answer. These all fell into the 3rd bullet on Jeff's answer above.

If you're happy that your question is answered, set the green tick - but you may well find you get additional answers / comments / etc long into the future.

Marking only one post as the accepted answer is not flexible, in my opinion. For a given question, there may be two or more different ways to achieve it, each possibly equally valid but just depending on the situation. I reckon using the MSDN forum style of "Helpful" answer is a much more flexible style.

+1 objective v subjective. But by voting this time, I have subjectively indicated that I liked a part of your answer - I didn't vote because it is the right answer (can there be an answer?)
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philcolbournMay 8 '10 at 23:43

I have an open question right now, and I decided to wait 48 hours before accepting one. Of the five answers I've gotten so far, two tempt me to accept them. If I'd accepted the first, the second answerer might have hesitated, but somehow I doubt it. The quality of the answer indicates a commitment to help, and they're gonna do that whether they are 'frist post' or not.

I think it does because I think I think like others. When I see an answered question I think that the odds of submitting an answer that gets accepted is low.

Initially I thought that an answered question was the end - I was ignorant that the Questioner could change their answer. Even though I know that the selected answer can be changed, I am reluctant to do better - I have seen selected answers that don't seem to be the best; and what looks to be a better answer has not been selected.

The reputation system encourages Q&A but it does not encourage the best answers.

One aspect of SO is the 'wiki' idea. How can this work with the current reputation system? What would drive me to make someone else's answer better?

I'd like to see some stats that would help us see what is going on so we can discuss this more objectively:

1. number of changes to selected answers
2. number of answers with higher votes than the selected answer
3. number of selected answers with negative votes
4. number of answers edited by others (not just typos and grammer)
5. number of selected answers edited by others

If the question has adequate existing answers, I upvote those. If I can provide a better answer than any of the existing answers (whether one of them has been accepted or not), I will add an answer. This might benefit the OP and should benefit the rest of the audience.

From a pure reputation perspective, a well-viewed answer can garner much more reputation from the general voting audience than it can from its question's author. So, if you think your new answer can get enough views from voting users, it can still make sense to add answers to questions that already have accepted answers.